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MSE Massachusetts 4X - anyone?


fscottee

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Posted

I tried generating this tile in X-Plane using both Bing and USGS imagery (Which I think MSE uses). Bing is vastly superior in colour and contrast

Posted

Do the MegaScenery Earth guys bother with watermasking? They certainly didn't with MSE2 Ireland.

Christopher Low

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Posted

From what I have in the past they tend to watermask large bodies of water only.  So areas look good - some not so good. 

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Posted

Think I managed to hover the Harrier to the correct spot. No slewing here  :smile:

This is what Massachusetts 4x looks like:

Lowell%20MSE4x.jpg?dl=0

 

And if anyone is interested, this is what MSE Ultra-Res Boston looks like:

Lowell%20UltraRes.jpg?dl=0

 

As you can see, it uses the same source data, but the water masking is different. Well, MSEs water masking until now has basically been to take the default vector data for the water and make the textures gradually transparent around that. That way they could through minimal work have the photo scenery textures blend in with the default water textures fairly nicely, however we also got horrible bleed through of the default ground textures around the water, but the join was fairly gradual. The x4 uses different vector data from default to make the textures see through for water, and they go from fully transparent to not transparent at all in a few feet instead of a few hundred feet.

 

 

Here is what the MSE2.0 Massachusetts look like:

Lowell%20MSE2.0.jpg?dl=0

 

We can clearly see that it uses different source data. And because that source data is a lot more washed out in color here, the default bleed through is absolutely horrible.

 

 

Finally here is the Default FSX scenery with autogen: 

Lowell%20Default.jpg?dl=0

 

If you save the images and blink between them its very clear where the default scenery is bleeding through.

Posted

Thanks for posting those.  It's a shame that MSE can't just be honest about the resolution they advertise.  The MSE4X looks like 1 meter and the MSE2 looks like 1.5 meter.  The bing is 50cm, (but FSX only displays at 60 cm).

 

But the biggest indicator of resolution is the download size of the scenery.  ALl this stuff about special compression techniques are hogwash.  When you compress textures, you lose quality, period.  So if you compress 50 cm textures, they are no longer 50 cm.

Posted

Yeah, that Bing scenery of yours is way better resolution, regardless of colors. So it is using the same LOD level as the MSE x4. Interesting.

 

The MSE UltraRes is actually slightly crisper compared to MSE x4 if you disregard the extra bleed through of default scenery here. If you look closer in the white lines in the red (is it a park?) in the top middle its clear that UltraRes is slightly better detail. It's clearly based on the same source so it must be that "optimised" 2x compression that is showing its ugly face. 

 

I'm no developer and don't know much about scenery scale but is the actual scale we see not depending on the latitude we are at? The textures are saved at a certain LOD level and the LOD level UltraRes and x4 scenery have gives a scale between about 70cm per pixel down in Key West and about 50cm per pixel up in northern Minnesota?

Posted

Just from judging the screenshots in this thread, the Bing screenshot looks amazing to me. The Bing photo to me virtually looks to have a great 3-D effect; with its clearly defined shadows, the bright colors, and higher resolution. 

I would consider buying photo scenery if it looked like the Bing screenshot.

 

Although I like the idea of "real" scenery and being able to identify the area I live in, the washed out look, the blurry images that even MSE 4X offers, doesn't 'totally' interest me, but I since I live in Massachusetts, I have been looking at it.

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  • Commercial Member
Posted

The Bing looks like 30cm to me

Intel i9-12900KF, Asus Prime Z690-A MB, 64GB DDR5 6000 RAM, (3) SK hynix M.2 SSD (2TB ea.), 16TB Seagate HDD, EVGA GeForce 3080 Ti, Corsair iCUE H70i AIO Liquid Cooler, UHD/Blu-ray Player/Burner (still have lots of CDs, DVDs!)  Windows 10, (hold off for now on Win11),  EVGA 1300W PSU
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Full array of Saitek and GoFlight hardware for the cockpit

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